Lot Essay
Cette œuvre sera incluse dans la prochaine édition du catalogue raisonné des tableaux de James Ensor par Xavier Tricot, sous l’année 1891.
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Provenant d’une importante collection privée belge
James Ensor (1860-1949)
Nature morte au Magot-Chinoiseries, étoffes
Details
James Ensor (1860-1949)
Nature morte au Magot-Chinoiseries, étoffes
signé 'ENSOR' (en bas à droite)
huile sur toile
33.1 x 56 cm.
Peint vers 1891
signed 'ENSOR' (lower right)
oil on canvas
13 x 22 in.
Painted circa 1891
Nature morte au Magot-Chinoiseries, étoffes
signé 'ENSOR' (en bas à droite)
huile sur toile
33.1 x 56 cm.
Peint vers 1891
signed 'ENSOR' (lower right)
oil on canvas
13 x 22 in.
Painted circa 1891
Provenance
François Franck, Anvers (probablement).
Max Motte, Bruxelles.
Anne Burnett Tandy, New York et Forth Worth.
Collection particulière, États-Unis (par descendance); vente, Sotheby's, New York, 6 novembre 1981, lot 366.
Knoedler, A.G., Zurich.
Vente, Sotheby's, Londres, 1 juillet 1987, lot 207.
Galerie Guy Pieters, Knokke-Heist.
Acquis auprès de celle-ci par le propriétaire actuel, en 1987.
Max Motte, Bruxelles.
Anne Burnett Tandy, New York et Forth Worth.
Collection particulière, États-Unis (par descendance); vente, Sotheby's, New York, 6 novembre 1981, lot 366.
Knoedler, A.G., Zurich.
Vente, Sotheby's, Londres, 1 juillet 1987, lot 207.
Galerie Guy Pieters, Knokke-Heist.
Acquis auprès de celle-ci par le propriétaire actuel, en 1987.
Literature
É. Verhaeren, James Ensor, Bruxelles, 1908, p. 118 (titré 'Nature morte').
G. Le Roy, James Ensor, Bruxelles, 1922, p. 182.
P. Fierens, James Ensor, Paris, 1943, p. 141 (illustré; titré 'Chinoiseries).
P. Haesaerts, James Ensor, Bruxelles, 1957, p. 281, no. 254 (illustré; titré 'Still-life').
X. Tricot, James Ensor, Catalogue raisonné des peintures, Paris, 1992, vol. I, p. 344, no. 357 (illustré).
X. Tricot, James Ensor, Sa vie, son œuvre, Catalogue raisonné des peintures, Bruxelles, 2009, p. 321, no. 369 (illustré en couleurs).
G. Le Roy, James Ensor, Bruxelles, 1922, p. 182.
P. Fierens, James Ensor, Paris, 1943, p. 141 (illustré; titré 'Chinoiseries).
P. Haesaerts, James Ensor, Bruxelles, 1957, p. 281, no. 254 (illustré; titré 'Still-life').
X. Tricot, James Ensor, Catalogue raisonné des peintures, Paris, 1992, vol. I, p. 344, no. 357 (illustré).
X. Tricot, James Ensor, Sa vie, son œuvre, Catalogue raisonné des peintures, Bruxelles, 2009, p. 321, no. 369 (illustré en couleurs).
Exhibited
Zurich, Kunsthaus et Anvers, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, James Ensor, mai-octobre 1983, no. 111 (titré 'Chinoiseries').
Bruxelles, Musées royaux des Beaux-arts de Belgique, Ensor, septembre 1999-février 2000, p. 190, no. 127 (illustré en couleurs).
Bruxelles, Musées royaux des Beaux-arts de Belgique, Ensor, septembre 1999-février 2000, p. 190, no. 127 (illustré en couleurs).
Further Details
Disposés sur une table dont on devine le plateau, une série d’objets et d’étoffes s’offrent au spectateur de manière frontale et à hauteur des yeux. Si ces éléments semblent tout d’abord légèrement confus en cela qu’ils sont nonchalamment entassés et même parfois superposés, ils dévoilent leurs différentes facettes petit à petit aux spectateurs qui s’y attardent. Des vases, des pots et poupées, un coquillage, des étoffes colorées, une boite au couvercle peint, un sac à main dont la touche voluptueuse évoque velours et passementerie débordent de la table sur laquelle, au centre, trône un magot en porcelaine debout et qui tient dans ses deux mains un vase à décor de phœnix. Le magot, cette figure tantôt chinoise ou japonaise qui représente un moine ascète au ventre pansu et à l’air joyeux, semble prendre vie devant nous et jouer le personnage admoniteur de la composition. Deux masques - objets ensoriens par excellence - surgissent de l’amas d’étoffe jaune pour donner à cette scène un caractère encore plus énigmatique. Le fond, composé à la manière d’un ciel de mille nuances colorées de bleus, de roses, de verts et de blancs confèrent à cette toile une impression de paysage. Avec Nature morte au Magot-Chinoiseries, étoffes, peint vers 1891, Ensor alors à l’apogée de son art, nous emporte au plus profond de l’univers subtil et merveilleux qu’il crée de toutes pièces à Ostende, ville balnéaire sur la côte belge de la mer du Nord où il vit, entouré de tous ses objets qui lui sont si familiers. Au début des années 1890, l’artiste, entouré de femmes - sa mère, sa sœur, sa tante et sa grand-mère - et des objets qui composent son quotidien verra dans ces derniers un terreau propice à ses développements et sa production de ces années sera reconnues par les historiens de l’art comme les plus aboutis et intéressants de sa carrière. Ensor a d’ailleurs déniché la plupart de ces objets, qui dès son plus jeune âge ont exercé une grande influence sur sa psyché, dans le magasin de souvenirs que tenait ses grands-parents dans la même ville. Ces objets représentés de manière quasi obsessionnelle prirent au fil des années une dimension onirique, spirituelle et même surréaliste quand l’artiste décidait de les associer de manière aléatoire. La nature morte représente près d’un tiers de l’œuvre peint par Ensor et occupe donc aux côtés des tableaux satiriques, une importance toute particulière dans la compréhension de son travail en cela qu’elles sont le moyen pour l’artiste d’appréhender le monde par la lumière et la couleur. Emile Verhaeren, le poète belge ira même plus loin et écrit dans La Plume en 1898: «James Ensor, peintre de masque (…) Il apparait, voici vingt ans, comme un admirable poète et musicien de la couleur. (…) Le sujet lui importe peu. Ce sont les tons et les harmonies qu’il combine. Il intitule ses toiles: Salons bourgeois en 1881; Dame en détresse; Mangeuse d’huitres. Cela importe-t-il? Absolument pas (…). Toutes ces œuvres belles et décisives sont en réalité des natures mortes (…). Peut-être un jour, parmi ces milles objets attirants et immobiles qui encombraient la table de son atelier, un masque se glissa-t-il. James Ensor l’étudia en peintre et le fixa comme tache sonore et curieuse sur sa toile». (E. Verhaeren cité in La plume, Paris 2 décembre 1898, p. 11). Même à Ostende, Ensor n’est pas pour autant coupé du monde artistique belge et étranger. Il est l’un des membres fondateurs du groupe d’avant-garde Les XX en 1883, aux côtés de Fernand Khnopff et Théo van Rysselberghe entre autres. Ce groupe sera dissolu en 1894 et prendra la forme du Cercle artistique de La Libre Esthétique. Ils organiseront à Bruxelles des expositions de leurs tableaux en prenant soin d’y intégrer des œuvres de leurs collègues des avant-garde européennes et attireront l’attention et les critiques, des intellectuels et de la presse de leur temps. Au lendemain du Salon des XX de 1892, August Vermeylen, homme politique socialiste, historien de l’art et écrivain d’expression néerlandaise, co-fondateur de la revue littéraire Van nu en straks y publie ce commentaire: «Ensor n’est pas toujours très, très distingué, mais c’est lui faire une scandaleuse injustice que de le considérer comme un plaisantin. Un plaisantin cet artiste sincère, qui ne vit que pour son art?- un plaisantin, parce qu’il vous jette parfois à la figure sa gouaillerie impitoyable ! Même celui qui ne le comprend pas est forcé d’admirer ses couleurs résolument tapageuses et le dessin sûr et ferme de ses «intérieurs» (…) Ou alors Ensor symbolise la vie telle qu’il la conçoit, dans ces masques de carton qui vous observent bizarrement de leurs orbites vides au-dessus de leur nez de Pumpernickel. Ces masques sont fantomatiques, inquiétants, ils ont toutes les caractéristiques de la vie, la même impression peureuse que l’on capte aussi dans un musée de cires. Et ils expriment tout leur côté énigmatique, obscurément mystérieux, déplaisant et bizarrement grotesque de la vie» (A. Vermeylen, Verzameld werk, 1955, Bruxelles, vol IV).
Arranged on a table whose surface is barely visible, a series of objects and fabrics confront the viewer head-on at eye level. Although at first sight they seem somewhat jumbled, being carelessly piled up and even sometimes superimposed, they gradually reveal their various facets to viewers who take the time to contemplate them. Vases, pots and dolls, a shell, coloured fabrics, a box with a painted lid, a handbag whose voluptuous depiction suggests velvet and braid, overflow from the table, dominated in the middle by a standing china figurine holding in both hands a Chinese vase decorated with a phoenix. The figurine, a Chinese or perhaps Japanese figure representing a big-bellied and cheerful-looking ascetic monk, seems to come to life before our eyes and act as the director of the composition. Two masks – Ensor’s very favourite objects – arise from the pile of yellow cloth, making the scene even more enigmatic. The background, composed like a sky in a thousand shades of blue, pink, green and white, makes this canvas resemble a landscape painting. Nature morte au Magot-Chinoiseries, étoffes, painted in about 1891 when Ensor’s skill as an artist was at its height, transports us to the depths of the subtle and marvellous world he created all of a piece in Ostend, a Belgian seaside resort on the North Sea coast, surrounded by all the objects which were so familiar to him. It was here, in the early 1890s, surrounded by women – his mother, his sister, his aunt and his grandmother – and by the objects which composed his everyday life that the artist found fertile ground for the new developments which art historians later acknowledged to be the most interesting and successful works of his career. Ensor discovered most of these objects, which from his earliest years exerted such an influence on his psyche, in the souvenir shop owned by his grandparents in the same town. Over the years, those objects, depicted almost obsessively, took on a dreamlike, spiritual and even surreal dimension when the artist decided to combine them haphazardly, as in this painting. Nearly a third of Ensor’s paintings are still lifes and therefore, alongside his satirical pictures, are of particular importance in understanding his work, since they were the way in which he apprehended the world through light and colour. The Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren went even further in the articles he wrote for La Plume in 1898: “James Ensor, painter of masks ( … ) A good twenty years ago, he appeared to be an admirable poet and musician of colour. The subject matter was of little importance to him. What mattered were the tones and harmonies he combined. He named his canvases Salons bourgeois in 1881; Dame en détresse; Mangeuse d’huitres. Did the name matter? Absolutely not ( …). All those beautiful and decisive works are really still lifes ( … ). Perhaps one day, among the thousands of charming and static objects which cluttered his studio table, a mask slipped in. James Ensor studied it as a painter and fixed it as a sonorous and curious mark on his canvas”. (E. Verhaeren quoted in La Plume, Paris, 2nd December 1898, p. 11). Even in Ostend, Ensor was not cut off from the Belgian and international art worlds. He was a founder member of the avant garde group Les XX in 1883, alongside Fernand Khnopff, Théo van Rysselberghe and others. The group was dissolved in 1894 and became the Cercle artistique de La Libre Esthétique. They organised exhibitions of their pictures in Brussels, taking care to include works by their European avant garde colleagues, and attracted the attention of the critics, intellectuals and journalists of their time. Shortly after the Salon des XX in 1892, August Vermeylen, a Dutch-speaking socialist politician, art historian, writer and co-founder of the literary review Van nu en straks published this comment in that publication: “Ensor is not always extremely distinguished, but it would be outrageously unfair to him to dismiss him as a joker. This sincere artist who lives only for his art, a joker? A joker because he sometimes throws his merciless remarks in your face! Even someone who does not understand him is forced to admire his resolutely rowdy colours and the sure and firm way he draws his “interiors” ( … ). Or perhaps to consider that Ensor symbolises life as he conceives of it, in those cardboard masks which watch you strangely through their empty eyes above their Pumpernickel noses. His masks are ghostlike, troubling, they have all the characteristics of life, the same unnerving impression one gets in a waxworks museum. And they express all the enigmatic, obscurely mysterious, unpleasant and strangely grotesque aspects of life”. (A. Vermeylen, Verzameld werk, 1955, Brussels, vol IV).
Arranged on a table whose surface is barely visible, a series of objects and fabrics confront the viewer head-on at eye level. Although at first sight they seem somewhat jumbled, being carelessly piled up and even sometimes superimposed, they gradually reveal their various facets to viewers who take the time to contemplate them. Vases, pots and dolls, a shell, coloured fabrics, a box with a painted lid, a handbag whose voluptuous depiction suggests velvet and braid, overflow from the table, dominated in the middle by a standing china figurine holding in both hands a Chinese vase decorated with a phoenix. The figurine, a Chinese or perhaps Japanese figure representing a big-bellied and cheerful-looking ascetic monk, seems to come to life before our eyes and act as the director of the composition. Two masks – Ensor’s very favourite objects – arise from the pile of yellow cloth, making the scene even more enigmatic. The background, composed like a sky in a thousand shades of blue, pink, green and white, makes this canvas resemble a landscape painting. Nature morte au Magot-Chinoiseries, étoffes, painted in about 1891 when Ensor’s skill as an artist was at its height, transports us to the depths of the subtle and marvellous world he created all of a piece in Ostend, a Belgian seaside resort on the North Sea coast, surrounded by all the objects which were so familiar to him. It was here, in the early 1890s, surrounded by women – his mother, his sister, his aunt and his grandmother – and by the objects which composed his everyday life that the artist found fertile ground for the new developments which art historians later acknowledged to be the most interesting and successful works of his career. Ensor discovered most of these objects, which from his earliest years exerted such an influence on his psyche, in the souvenir shop owned by his grandparents in the same town. Over the years, those objects, depicted almost obsessively, took on a dreamlike, spiritual and even surreal dimension when the artist decided to combine them haphazardly, as in this painting. Nearly a third of Ensor’s paintings are still lifes and therefore, alongside his satirical pictures, are of particular importance in understanding his work, since they were the way in which he apprehended the world through light and colour. The Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren went even further in the articles he wrote for La Plume in 1898: “James Ensor, painter of masks ( … ) A good twenty years ago, he appeared to be an admirable poet and musician of colour. The subject matter was of little importance to him. What mattered were the tones and harmonies he combined. He named his canvases Salons bourgeois in 1881; Dame en détresse; Mangeuse d’huitres. Did the name matter? Absolutely not ( …). All those beautiful and decisive works are really still lifes ( … ). Perhaps one day, among the thousands of charming and static objects which cluttered his studio table, a mask slipped in. James Ensor studied it as a painter and fixed it as a sonorous and curious mark on his canvas”. (E. Verhaeren quoted in La Plume, Paris, 2nd December 1898, p. 11). Even in Ostend, Ensor was not cut off from the Belgian and international art worlds. He was a founder member of the avant garde group Les XX in 1883, alongside Fernand Khnopff, Théo van Rysselberghe and others. The group was dissolved in 1894 and became the Cercle artistique de La Libre Esthétique. They organised exhibitions of their pictures in Brussels, taking care to include works by their European avant garde colleagues, and attracted the attention of the critics, intellectuals and journalists of their time. Shortly after the Salon des XX in 1892, August Vermeylen, a Dutch-speaking socialist politician, art historian, writer and co-founder of the literary review Van nu en straks published this comment in that publication: “Ensor is not always extremely distinguished, but it would be outrageously unfair to him to dismiss him as a joker. This sincere artist who lives only for his art, a joker? A joker because he sometimes throws his merciless remarks in your face! Even someone who does not understand him is forced to admire his resolutely rowdy colours and the sure and firm way he draws his “interiors” ( … ). Or perhaps to consider that Ensor symbolises life as he conceives of it, in those cardboard masks which watch you strangely through their empty eyes above their Pumpernickel noses. His masks are ghostlike, troubling, they have all the characteristics of life, the same unnerving impression one gets in a waxworks museum. And they express all the enigmatic, obscurely mysterious, unpleasant and strangely grotesque aspects of life”. (A. Vermeylen, Verzameld werk, 1955, Brussels, vol IV).
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